Present Company to perform Sondheim

The Amber Valley-based company performs at the famous venue from Thursday, September 3-Saturday, September 5.

Performances are at 7.30pm nightly with a Saturday matinee from 2.30pm.

Present Company is delighted to bring this iconic Stephen Sondheim musical to Buxton Opera House for a second time.

The first occasion was in 1988 when Jean Gemmell gathered singers together to present the show as part of a Sondheim Celebration Bank Holiday weekend.

Since that debut, Present Company has performed 70 other musicals, operettas and operas in over 300 performances during the intervening 27 years, giving hundreds of singers an opportunity to show off their singing skills on stage and providing pleasure to the thousands of people who have watched.

For the audience, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music has everything: first love, last love, puppy love , ex (a little), pistols at dawn, spectacle and above all style, not forgetting the hit song: Send In The Clowns.

Jean Gemmell, who celebrates more than 50 years as a director, has again brought together some of the best amateur singers and actors from the East Midlands expressly to create a new production of the show.

A Little Night Music is a musical with no chorus which requires performers of real acting calibre, with vocal technique of operatic quality, who can also dance.

Little wonder it is rarely tackled. At its premiere, the New York Times reviewer wrote:“At last a new operetta! . . . heady, civilised, sophisticated, enchanting.The music is a celebration of waltzes . . . the lyrics are breath-taking . . . Good God! An adult musical.”

Laura Brookes is thrilled to be playing the Swedish actress Desirée Armfeldt. Laura joined Present Company (as Laura Orton) for Beauty and The Beast, then played Eliza in My Fair Lady, Maria in The Sound of Music and last year Rose in Aspects Of Love.

David Lovell plays the lawyer Frederik Egerman who rekindles his liaison with Desirée after seeing her again when taking his new young bride to the theatre.

David joined Present Company last year to play George in Aspects Of Love.

Alice Hands sings Anne Egerman, Frederik’s 18-year-old wife in a marriage that has yet to be consummated.

This is Alice’s debut with Present Company. Other key cast members include Craig Arme, Jon Morris, Rachael-Louise Bray and Bryony Gilbert.

Tickets are £15-£19 (plus concessions) for the Thursday-Saturday evening performances or £1 Present Company will be back on stage this week when they perform Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at Buxton Opera House.